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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29705565">Project Barbatos</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Sovereign/pseuds/Shadow_Sovereign'>Shadow_Sovereign</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Nemesis Saga - Jeremy Robinson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Future Fic, Kaiju, Original Character(s), Super Soldiers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:07:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,009</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29705565</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Sovereign/pseuds/Shadow_Sovereign</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been three years since the events of Project Legion and humanity is still cleaning up the mess. Among those messes is a team of genetically modified super soldiers. When Maigo Hudson finally manages to track down one of these soldiers, she finds that his present and her past have plenty in common. The FC-P is back in action as they hunt down the men and women exacting vengeance on the human race with their Kaiju DNA.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Kent</strong>
</p><p>Blood splattered the walls as I cut down the bioterrorists. They screamed with renewed vigor as they saw the extent of my horror. The black armor covering my body and the bone-colored claws jutting from my fingertips brought back horrific memories of a certain justice bringer.</p><p>As I leapt on top of one of their friends, tearing open his neck with razor-sharp teeth, they finally opened fire.</p><p>I raised my massive forearms to shield my head and less armored chest. Sharp pains assailed me as each bullet wedged itself into my carapace. I barely balked at the pain. After all, I'd experienced far worse.</p><p>When they realized that I was shielding parts of my body, they tried to get closer, edging around my guard to dig a bullet into my softer flesh. That was their first mistake.</p><p>The closer they got, the hotter the rage burned within me and I abandoned all caution. When five of the six terrorists went to reload, I pressed off the ground, the muscles in my inhuman legs tensing hard enough to fling me into the air and carry me the ten feet to the nearest terrorist. Bright red ejected from his back alongside my claws.</p><p>Hefting him into the air, I flung him at the other man attempting to flank me, sending both sprawling out onto the floor. Only one of the five still standing had bullets in his gun. I reached him before they ever got to fly free. I tore him in half, a mercifully quick death for such a terrible person.</p><p>The other five were flung against walls, crushing their internal organs, had their necks ripped out, or were dealt fatal stab wounds within the span of ten seconds. It was slow for me, but that was likely because I had a bullet wound in my abdomen. I ignored it.</p><p>Against my heart's desires, I felt myself grinning in sick amusement as they began pumping their homemade chemicals into their own hallways. They knew bullets wouldn't work. But no chemical weapon would ever kill Nemesis, so it wouldn't kill me.</p><p>I stomped through the compound, diving further and further into their depths as my lungs were dissolved and regenerated ad nauseum.</p><p>Plenty more men and women in gas masks crossed my path, none of their deaths were worth mentioning.</p><p>When I began hearing helicopter blades, I knew that I could no longer leisurely stroll through the compound. I had to ensure that there were no survivors.</p><p>Dropping to all fours, I began sprinting through the hallways like a cat, moving faster than a Formula 1 race car. My hands and feet were digging into the ground hard enough to scoop up concrete like it was wet sand.</p><p>My nerves continued to burn with disgust as I neared the end of the terrorists' nest. I knew that my final targets were behind the door directly ahead. That confused me. None of them were running for a helicopter.</p><p>I didn't slow, even though I knew there were at least a dozen guns on the other side of that door aimed at me. It might've been enough to injure even me and that felt unnecessary, so instead, I burst through the wall several feet to the right of the door.</p><p>The brick exploded out like shrapnel, puncturing the bodies of at least three men. Three kneeling men.</p><p>I looked around, the room was clear of gas. I snarled as I noticed <em>all </em>of the remaining terrorists on their knees, hands above their heads. They were all muttering something in a language I couldn't understand, but the gesture was clear.</p><p>Unfortunately for them, I had clear orders. A simple flick of my wrist drew a line of red in several throats, slitting them open. The others didn't have a chance to muster weapons, they were too busy recovering from their surrender.</p><p>In the end, only one man remained, scrambling for his desk as he reached for a firearm. This man was responsible for the bio-attack in Texas. Five-hundred died. He was guilty beyond a doubt. But I wasn't here to read him his miranda rights as I brought him back to America to be prosecuted for his crimes.</p><p>My claws, hanging low, dragged against the ground, creating a nails on chalkboard effect. That was enough to tell the man that he was dead.</p><p>I raised my hand, prepared to end my mission, but just as I brought it down, a shape crashed through the ceiling. They landed just in front of me, catching my wrist with an immense pressure.</p><p>It should've been impossible. I was alone and none of my teammates would come to stop me. No one else should've held this power.</p><p>Dust attempted to obscure my vision, but my senses were enough to jab forwards with my left hand, claws outstretched to stab the terrorist's defender. They were too agile.</p><p>Just as they caught my right hand by the wrist, they caught my left, using their immense strength to pull my arms to either side, exposing my chest. "Calm… down!" The voice was feminine and from the sound of it, she was using plenty of energy to just hold me back, encouraging my more viscous side. I felt no sins from this woman, but she was protecting someone full of sin, that made her worthy of judgement.</p><p>Roaring, my head snapped forwards, teeth bared to take a chunk out of the woman's face. She kicked out instinctively, driving her boot into my chest with such force that I found myself crashing back through the same wall I had broken through moments earlier. Four of my ribs were broken, but like the bullet wounds, they were barely worth my attention. My rage had overcome any pain.</p><p>A second shape dropped down, their motion clearing the dust and revealing two women in their twenties. The one that caught my attack looked perfectly human. Asian, with a contradicting maturity in her eyes and a youthful face. The second one was… a cat-girl. But she wasn't a cute girl with cat ears and a tail and mostly human features. She was more comparable to a panther the longer I looked at her, fur covering every inch of her body.</p><p>"Woah…" The cat-girl breathed out, more infatuated than scared.</p><p>The first girl almost looked sad, like she pitied me. It was such a new reaction that I almost forgot my mission.</p><p>"Who did this to yo-" Her eyes widened as my form blurred through the air, appearing just before her. She was shocked, but not falling behind. The way her eyes tracked me, I could tell. She wasn't just strong, she was fast.</p><p>Trying to stab her with my claws obviously hadn't worked, so I cast aside any elegance and balled my hand into a fist. She met it head on, throwing her all into it as our knuckles met.</p><p>"Well, I guess he's embracing the monster, huh?" The cat-girl didn't see at all fazed by the mini shockwave our punches put off, even though she had been standing right next to us.</p><p>"Shut up," The girl fired back through gritted teeth. It wasn't malicious, which seemed a shame. Turning the two of them against each other would've been the perfect distraction.</p><p>I kicked out at her knee, intending to snap it backwards, but she gracefully slid her leg back, just barely out of range, forcing me to overextend. She took the opportunity to throw a punch of her own with her free hand, giving me only just enough time to raise my palm, catching the punch at the expense of some of the bones in my hand. The armor on my palms was miniscule compared to my knuckles, allowing the force to carry much further.</p><p>Despite the pain, I wrapped my far larger hand around hers, enveloping nearly half of her forearm. With one hand trapped and the other holding back my punch, I once more lurched forwards, my teeth out. She wouldn't be able to stop this without some sort of harm to herself.</p><p>However, the cat-girl, previously uninvolved, stepped in. Her claws extended out, catching my fangs easily. "Want some help?" She was strong too.</p><p>"Fine."</p><p>Without even a second to take a step back, the cat-girl's claws flashed through the air, completely cutting through my bicep and severing the muscles in my left arm. It fell limply to my side as the girl's fist now faced no resistance, carrying through the air and into my face.</p><p>A pop in my nose and watering in my eyes told me she broke my nose. I was thankful that the punch wasn't directed at my teeth. Those wouldn't grow back.</p><p>As the momentum tried to carry me away from her, the cat-girl caught the small of my back with her hand, flipping me over and driving me into the floor. The air rushed out of my lungs as they pinned my legs and one functional arm down.</p><p>"Who did this to you?" The girl repeated, now free of my interruptions.</p><p>I felt the urge to ask her the same question, to open my mouth and learn how she got just as strong as myself, but the voice buzzing in my earpiece told me to keep my mouth shut. So instead, I settled for the satisfaction of counting down. "Five… four…"</p><p>The girls looked at each other like they'd experienced a similar dilemma before.</p><p>"Bluffing… right?"</p><p>"Three… two…"</p><p>"I mean, he's got nowhere to hide anything."</p><p>"One…"</p><p>Silence elapsed for a few moments before the girls gave the subtlest of sighs.</p><p>"I told you the time in Taiwan was just a-" The cat-girl dove forwards, tackling her friend to the ground as a club of an arm swung just where her head had been.</p><p>They rolled out of the way as my rescuer, a literal giant of a man, stomped on the ground, attempting to crush their heads. Meanwhile, a much slimmer woman helped me back onto my feet. Like me, her claws were covered in blood, only hers was fresh. I looked over at the bio-terrorist leader. Dead.</p><p>"We're done. Let's go."</p><p>The beast of a man stepped aside, revealing a six-foot tall bell, covered by his ten-foot frame.</p><p>"A Rift Engine?!"</p><p>I laid my working hand on the familiar device alongside my compatriots as the cat-girl went to launch a counter-attack on the giant. Her friend grabbed her tail at the last moment, pulling her back and saving her from the very unfortunate fate she would've faced had she come with us. And then, we blinked out of existence.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>Maigo</strong>
</p><p>Neither girl said anything on the flight home on Old Betty. Lilly was upset that she had to let the Human-Kaiju hybrids go and Maigo was upset that not a single word came out of that guy's mouth other than some numbers.</p><p>"This is Old Betty to The Mountain, we're home."</p><p>"You better not have put a dent in mah baby girl."</p><p>"I'd be doing you a favor forcing you to replace this thing. It's a miracle it hasn't crashed and burned yet."</p><p>"And that's her charm," Woodstock replied, "Future Betty's nice and all, but when you've survived multiple monster attacks in that "rustbucket" you know you've found true love."</p><p>"You need to get laid," Lilly suggested, "Otherwise you're gonna end up shoving your dick into a car's exhaust pipe one day."</p><p>Maigo could hear faint chuckling over the comms before the man asked, "So what happened?"</p><p>"Got away again. But… we did actually make contact this time and confirmed it. Someone's taken the genetics of the Gestorumque and augmented humans with it."</p><p>"Well, I'm sure Hudson'll be fucking thrilled to hear that when he gets back."</p><p>"What did he even need Future Betty for?"</p><p>"Something about some aliens living underground. Cowboy popped in and told him it might be worth looking at, so we'll see."</p><p>Maigo chuckled, "Did he, by any chance, bring Crazy with him? It'd be nice to have some "not-so human" backup for the next time we see these guys."</p><p>"Nah, you'll just have to make do with your own badassery."</p><p>"Hell yeah!" Lilly shouted, Woodstock bringing back some of her energy.</p><p>"Don't worry kid, we'll put together a team of hard hitters and take 'em down."</p><p>Maigo frowned, "Maybe we should just keep it to us for now. If anyone else gets involved, they'd probably die."</p><p>"Well, that's up to the old man when he gets back."</p><p>"You're the old man. Dad's just…"</p><p>"Fermenting?" Lilly suggested, earning a disgusted cringe from Maigo as she took off the headset and hopped out of the helicopter, having landed on the "roof" of the Mountain base.</p><p>As crews went to refuel the chopper, Maigo and Lilly descended into the caved out mountain via elevator. Its one glass wall gave them a great view of the "hangar" that felt empty now that it was missing Hyperion in its bay and Nemesis in the giant water capsule where she once rested. Both were dead now, but with the emergence of these super-soldiers, Maigo felt like she had a second chance at taming the beast.</p>
<hr/><p>
  <strong>Kent</strong>
</p><p>We emerged in a perfectly white and sterile room. It was where the bell was kept at all times, allowing this cube to function as the deployment room.</p><p>Waiting to greet us was a man with a perfectly shaven head and ice-cold blue eyes. He was Richard Ridley and he was my father. He was the father of us all, because he was the first man to seamlessly blend human and Gestorumque DNA, allowing us to keep our sanity. He created the next Nemesis… me.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Kent</strong>
</p><p>"Dr. Ridley," I greeted the man. He easily broke the cliche of nerds not being imposing.</p><p>Despite being un-enhanced, as far as I knew, he managed to beat three of the five Project Barbatos subjects, myself included, in hand-to-hand combat. He was at least a full head taller than me, standing at six feet and three inches and his muscles appeared bigger than even my Kaiju augmented arms. He insisted time and time again that he was human, plain and simple, but it was a statement I simply never found myself believing.</p><p>"Excellent work as always. You should report to the infirmary to have them take those bullets out of you." He gave all three of us a quick once over before turning around and moving to leave just as soon as he had entered.</p><p>"Wait." I knew he was a man of few words, but I intended to eek out as many as possible, especially when it came to that girl. "Who was that? You told me that there was no one else like us," I said, referring to myself and my four teammates."</p><p>"There isn't. You five are the perfected versions of that girl."</p><p>Maia, the only female of Project Barbatos, flicked her hands at the ground, throwing off bits of blood and flesh, "She looked completely human. Doesn't that mean she's the perfect version of us?"</p><p>Ridley gave a wry smile, "You should be aware of it by now, but looks aren't everything."</p><p>"Who cares how she looks?" The giant, who went only by the name Mace, asked. "She was as strong as Kent. Means that neither is the "perfected" version. If we're equal in strength, we're not superior."</p><p>"Oh, but you are stronger." Ridley said, showing no signs of being annoyed by his children questioning him. "That girl is stagnant. She will never surpass the strength she has now. You three, and your two brothers, will continue to grow. She's strong now, but you'll be stronger soon."</p><p>"But <em>who </em>is she?" I asked again.</p><p>He suddenly grew cold, "Maigo Hudson. The adopted daughter of the head of the FC-P. She was born from the first assumed death of Nemesis. Forget about her. She's not our enemy and the FC-P is not an enemy we want to be making right now." He waved his hand through the air as he spun around once more and walked out. This time, no one stopped him, "Rest and recover. You'll be going on another mission soon."</p><p>I looked at my two siblings. They looked concerned by the existence of another Kaiju-born superhuman, but much like my other two brothers, they were religiously devoted to Richard Ridley, so they'd follow his orders and forget about Maigo soon enough. I was just as devoted, but I could tell she wouldn't be leaving my thoughts for some time.</p><p>Even as I walked through the halls of the pristine white facility and even as the doctors pulled shrapnel and bullets from my body and stitched muscle back together, I couldn't keep her out of my mind. It wasn't her appearance, her strength, or even her opposition to my mission that kept her in my thoughts.</p><p>Whenever I looked into someone's "soul" with Nemesis's power of judgement, I saw writhing masses of darkness, or if they were innocent, I simply saw nothing. With that girl, I saw neither. Instead, she had a light in her chest. It was like a beacon, guiding me to her… but why?</p><p>The question rested in the back of my mind as my Kaiju enhancements shrunk down, giving me a more humanoid look. I was still covered in patches of dark skin and my claws were still sharp enough to pierce concrete, but at least this way I was less likely to tear my bed to shreds in the night. I'd probably still make it happen. Because no matter how soundly I slept, those dreams… no, memories, of the Goddess of Vengeance haunted my rest.</p><hr/><p>
  <strong>Maigo</strong>
</p><p>Maigo jolted awake as her nightmares came to a rough close. She hadn't had them in a while, but the knowledge that another Nemesis-like being existed brought them back to the forefront of her consciousness.</p><p>They always ended one of two ways. She either died as Nemesis, or she killed her family, either as Nemesis, or herself. She preferred dying. Of course, no matter which way they ended, she always woke with the taste of human flesh on her tongue.</p><p>She'd tasted plenty of strange flavors as Nemesis. Whale, bear, sharks, even a few dolphins. Plenty of them tasted awful, despite her incessant hunger, but the human taste was the only one to ever stick with her.</p><p>Maigo hated the taste of coffee almost as much as she hated the human taste, so she settled for simply brushing her teeth to clean the putrid memory from her tongue. She'd get something to eat later.</p><p>It was only four in the morning, yet the Mountain Base was still alive with motion. They had rotating staff to make certain that the FC-P was always operational and constantly ready for any threat, terrestrial or otherwise.</p><p>"Good morning!" Watson shouted across the hangar as he and Cooper spotted Maigo walking wearily into the bay.</p><p>"Morning," Maigo responded, looking out to the rising sun through the enormous open doors. "Are we expecting someone other than dad?" Typically, any helicopters or VTOL craft landed on the roof of the mountain. They rarely opened these doors for any occasion.</p><p>"Zoomb's finally delivering!"</p><p>"Really?!" Maigo's face lit up, her nightmares pushed to the back of her mind by the excitement in Watson's eyes and the utter disappointment in Woodstock's.</p><p>In the past three years, Zoomb, and most other companies on the planet for that matter, were busy rebuilding the ruins of society. Too many cities had been desecrated by the G.U.S. and the nasty acidic slugs that came with them. A few unlucky ones defied the orders of the FC-P and fired upon the gasbags, lighting the contents inside them and creating an explosion to surpass several nukes. Those cities were now just craters.</p><p>They were still rebuilding, but recently, enough work had been done to allow Zoomb to return to their old pattern of research and development. The result of that was now coming through the Mountain's hangar doors. 4 VTOL X-36Bs.</p><p>Marble white and sleeker than the Enterprise, they were the next generation of Future Betty. And better yet, these bad boys could be armed. After Nemesis and Hyperion were killed, the FC-P was kind of in a panic as to what to do if any Kaiju ever showed up again. They had the bacteria bombs to eat away their brains, but those were never safe to deliver, so it helped to have invisible stealth planes with actual combat capabilities. With these, it would certainly be easier to track down the Kaiju-Human assassins.</p><p>"Yeah, they're cool and all, but where's the charm?" Woodstock asked, a smile on his face.</p><p>"You know you love 'em," Maigo responded, "When we first got Future Betty, you nearly forgot about Helicopter Betty altogether."</p><p>Woodstock shrugged, "Sometimes, needs change as time goes on. I had my fling with Future Betty, but I'm a man with a straight rudder now!"</p><p>"Are… we still talking about vehicles?" Cooper's face was as emotionless as ever. Maigo still wasn't sure how a woman like her and a man like Watson ended up together.</p><p>"Well don't have a fling with any of these guys! I call dibs on at least one of them!" Hudson shouted as he entered the hangar. Future Betty had been landed on the roof while these four were brought in. "I've always wanted to fly a fighter jet from space."</p><p>Technically, since it was the Ferox who began the project for the X-35, the VTOLs were partially of extraterrestrial descent.</p><p>"I heard you and Lilly finally had a run in with the targets?"</p><p>Maigo nodded, "It was freaky, they were definitely "modeled" after Nemesis and her siblings."</p><p>"Her siblings? I didn't hear about that," Cooper pulled out her tablet and began typing away.</p><p>"The one we fought was Nemesis. Same claws, and from the security footage, he kinda ran the same way as she did."</p><p>Hudson blew out a breath, "Well, you'd know best. What about the other two?"</p><p>"The big one was Karkinos and the girl was Drakon. But… they didn't seem very… developed?" Maigo said, struggling to find the right word. "In raw strength, they're on my level. Other than that, they have no real Kaiju qualities. No membranes, no tails. They just seem like enhanced humans with the unfortunate side effect of looking like their counterparts."</p><p>"Little boring…" Hudson remarked as he looked over the tablet Coop handed him. It was playing the recovered footage.</p><p>"Were you hoping for them to have the explosive titties?" Woodstock blurted out.</p><p>"The… what?"</p><p>"Well… ya know, right where the girl shoulda had breasts… it was… the membranes?" The pilot continued trailing off as the looks of disapproval got greater and greater.</p><p>"Oh! And they had a Rift Engine with them, a small one."</p><p>That got Watson's attention, "I thought that was Ferox tech?"</p><p>"It is…" Hudson muttered, "And the only ones with Ferox technology…"</p><p>"Are GOD." Maigo finished.</p><p>"Makes sense, they were fucking with genetics after all. If these guys are Kaiju-Human hybrids, then GOD would be the most likely suspect."</p><p>"I thought GOD was disbanded after the Ferox were forced off-planet? And if it <em>is </em>GOD, why not just clone more of the actual Kaiju? Why make smaller versions?"</p><p>"Could be a splinter organization," Coop suggested, "Which would also explain the lack of much bigger threats. They may not have the resources to clone, only enough to modify."</p><p>"GOD was also made to help protect humanity, regardless of how messed up their methods were. Attacking a place like this, I don't see how it helps humanity."</p><p>"Where'd they hit?" Watson asked.</p><p>"The National Human Genome Research Institute." Maigo scowled, "He said, the guy behind me was "full of sin," but I dug into his history. He was just the head of the research division, no family, no debts, nothing that could even be construed as sinful. It was almost like… we weren't seeing the same person."</p>
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